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InNUvation
I always thought I'd like to be my own boss one day, so when the opportunity arose to become the engineering representative to a small Northwestern entrepreneurial interest group called InNUvation, I jumped at it. The group has grown a great deal since I became involved as Co-President along with Kellogg student Todd Melby, from just a few people in the fall of 2005 to over 30 leaders and about 1500 on our mailing list in Spring 2007. We started out organizing entrepreneurial speakers and conducting business plan workshops to garner attention. This year, we have created Northwestern's first university-wide idea competition, the NU Venture Challenge, organized a mini-conference dedicated to translational research, and helped create a new interdisciplinary medical device design course involving students and faculty from the law, medical, business and engineering schools (begins Fall 2007).
This success is due to having worked with a group of extremely dedicated students of different ages and disciplines from all over the university, as well as very supportive faculty. I can only hope that I'll have the opportunity to work with such talented people again. Hopefully, with the group still going strong, in a few years we'll see some real changes to the entrepreneurial culture at Northwestern.
The Automata
Back in March of '05, my friends Matthieu Chardon, Vikram Chib, and Michael Freimuth brought up the idea of throwing an event dedicated to bringing together two diametrically opposed archetypes, the engineer and the artist. I thought it sounded like a good idea and we began to plan what became known as The Automata.
Held on June 11, 2005 in Wicker Park, Chicago, we mixed local artists' work along side pictures and descriptions of some local robots at Northwestern. Concurrent with this display was a video interviewing several Northwestern professors on the future of technology and how it will affect society. To make up our costs, we charged $10 at the door.
Afterwards, the first of four eclectic bands took over (Lost Robot, Killer Whales, Ken (Far Rad), and The Old Scratch Revival Singers), along with the necessary alcohol to get these two groups of people talking. The event went great, with over 400 guests, some really loud music, and eventually some random naked people dancing (they wandered over from the naked bike ride - no joke). We raised more than enough money to cover our costs, and donated the proceeds (about $450) to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.